Pentagon report confirms spiraling violence in Iraq

WASHINGTON, Dec 19: The security situation in Iraq continued to deteriorate between mid-August and mid-November with a 22 per cent jump in attacks compared to the three preceding months, according to a quarterly report issued by the Pentagon.

"In the past three months, the total number of attacks increased 22 per cent," the report to US lawmakers said, noting that some of the increase could be attributed to a seasonal spike in violence during Ramadan."

"The violence in Iraq poses a grave threat to political progress," according to the report which was issued yesterday.

According to the Pentagon, coalition forces were the target of 68 per cent of the attacks, but the overwhelming majority of casualties were suffered by Iraqis.

"Total civilian casualties increased by two per cent over the previous reporting period," the report said.

The report covered the period from August 12 to November 10.

The Pentagon said that 54 per cent of all attacks occurred in only two provinces, Baghdad and Anbar.

"Outside of the Sunni Triangle, more than 90 per cent of Iraqis reported feeling very safe in their neighbourhoods," it said.

The report said the largest threat to security in Iraq was radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, "which has replaced Al-Qaeda in Iraq as the most dangerous accelerant of potentially self-sustaining sectarian violence in Iraq."

Attacks on infrastructure have dropped, but the cumulative effect of attacks have strained services for Iraqis. (AGENCIES)

Japan says N Korea talks could end early

TOKYO, Dec 19: Japan's foreign minister said today that six-party talks on disarming North Korea, which resumed after more than a year, could end early if the communist state did not budge.

North Korea has demanded a lifting of financial sanctions before any compromise on its nuclear programme.

Asked what the possibility was of talks closing early, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said, "It's not zero."

"It would only mean the sanctions will stay as they are now," he told reporters.

Aso said the five nations negotiating with North Korea -- China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States -- anticipated that Pyongyang would be emboldened after its October atomic test.

"It was expected," Aso said.

"This is the first meeting" since the nuclear test, he said. "I think other participating nations also had expected it."

Japan's chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said separately that it was "very disappointing" that North Korea stressed its position as a nuclear power.

"Although it had been expected, they should hold more positive discussions," Shiozaki said.

The six-way talks resumed yesterday following a 13-month suspension that was caused by North Korea's objections to US financial sanctions imposed against it late last year for alleged money laundering and counterfeiting.

The talks have no set time frame, although US chief envoy Christopher Hill had earlier signalled he anticipated the round to last around a week. (AGENCIES)

Citigroup acquires 20 pc equity in Chinese bank

BEIJING, Dec 19: The ailing Guangdong Development Bank (GDB) has announced the completion of its share transfer to new shareholders including the Citigroup, which has become the first foreign financial services provider to manage a Chinese bank.

So far, all the fund for nearly 85.6 per cent of GDB's shares has been transacted into the GDB's account, a company official was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

In a addition to Citigroup, other shareholders are China Life Insurance Group and China Guodian Corp, respectively the nation's largest insurer and major electricity distributor.

Each of the three companies will hold 20 per cent of the GDB's shares respectively. The other three institutions hold about the remaining 25 per cent.

The Citigroup-led consortium of new shareholders signed a purchase agreement of 24.27 billion yuan (3.03 billion US dollars) with the GDB last month to acquire nearly 85.6 per cent of the bank, ending a lengthy battle with French bank Societe Generale and China's second largest insurer Ping An Group.

Also yesterday, the China Banking Regulatory Commission approved the GDB's application for foreign shareholders, said a statement on the commission's website.

"After receiving applications from the GDB, we have conducted a strict qualification examination based on relevant laws and regulations. Then we decided to approve the new shareholders," the statement said. (PTI)

China sentences drug kingpin to death

BEIJING, Dec 19: A Chinese court has sentenced a drug kingpin in south China to death while his four accomplices received suspended death sentences or life term.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province, passed the sentence on Chen Bingxi, 50, of trafficking and manufacturing 12.36 tonnes of methamphetamine, selling 108.85 kilograms of heroin and transporting over 100 kilograms of heroin.

Chen's wife, Chen Baoyu, was sentenced to one year in jail for producing drugs and illegally crossing a border, Xinhua news agency quoted the court verdict as saying.

Two members of Chen's drug ring were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Two others were sentenced to life in prison.

Chen had been dealing in drugs for many years and had close contact with several drug lords in the country, the court said.

In 1998, Chen set up a warehouse to store more than 100 kilograms of heroin that had been transported from the southwestern province of Yunnan by Zhang Qisheng, a convicted drug trafficker who had been previously sentenced to death.

In May and June 1998, Chen and Liu Zhaohua, another notorious drug lord, rented a factory in Chishui Village and produced 300 kilograms of methamphetamine. Liu was tried separately by the court but has yet to be sentenced.

In November 1999, police seized 11.08 tonnes of methamphetamine Chen had hidden in a storehouse in Guangzhou and another 1.28 tonnes in Puning.

Chen and his wife fled to Thailand in November 1999 but were arrested by police in 2003. (PTI)

Russia fails solving difference over Iran issue with US,Europe

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19: Russia failed to resolve differences with the United States and key European countries over a UN resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said yesterday there had been "some progress" during talks among the six key nations trying to negotiate with Iran - Britain, France, Germany, the US, Russia and China - but he said differences remain over a travel ban and a list of companies and individuals that should be subject to a freeze of their financial assets.

Churkin called the travel ban "unnecessary" and said that while Moscow accepts the concept of having some financial restrictions related to prohibited nuclear-related activities, "we have not agreed with the list."

The latest draft resolution would order all countries to ban the supply of specified materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programmes, and would impose a travel ban and asset freeze on key companies and individuals in the country's nuclear and missile programmes who are named on a UN list.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday morning about some of the outstanding issues. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said afterwards: "We are hopeful that we can get a vote in the very near future."

Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said he would like the draft resolution to be finalised today if possible, but the resolution needs to be discussed by the entire 15-member Security Council. Discussions are expected to take place today. (AGENCIES)

Chinese urged to opt for cremation due to shortage of land

BEIJING, Dec 19: Chinese people are being urged to opt for cremation instead of burial to save the dwindling land resources available in the world's most populous nation.

China's funeral reforms had achieved a lot over the past several decades, but are now running into resistance as new graves proliferate in some areas, vice-minister of Civil Affairs, Dou Yupei said.

"Bodies are sometimes cremated and then the ashes are put into coffins for burial, wasting land," he told a meeting of the China Funeral Association in the eastern metropolis, Shanghai.

"This shows the funeral reform is not complete," he said.

Some large Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai handle one lakh bodies each year. Nationwide, nearly nine million bodies need to be processed, he said.

"Where could we get the land to bury all those people? We must fully implement a cremation policy," he said.

China has a longstanding custom of burying the dead. But iconoclastic 'Chairman' Mao Zedong took a different view. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Mao's initiative to encourage cremation.

Chinese leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping have set fine examples for modern funerals, requesting that their ashes be scattered in the mountains or on the high sea.

In 1977, the government started to encourage cremation rather than burial, and simple funerals instead of extravagant and superstitious ceremonies.

About 67.27 million human remains were cremated from 1978 to 2005 in China, saving tens of thousands of hectares of land and trees and billions of yuan, statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. (PTI)

US plans naval build up in Gulf

NEW YORK, Dec 19: The United States plans a major build up of Naval forces in the Gulf beginning next month as a warning to Iran.

The plan includes a second US aircraft carrier joining the one already present in the area, CBS television network said yesterday. Military officials, however, said the build up was not aimed at attacking Iran.

It is in response to what the US officials view as "increasing proactive acts" by Tehran, including naval exercises, its support to Shiite militias in Iraq and its uranium enrichment programme which American officials believe is aimed at making a nuclear bomb, the officials were quoted as saying by the channel.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the report. (PTI)

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Teenager saved from fatwa

DHAKA, Dec 19: Police in northeastern Bangladesh saved a teenager from being beaten up by villagers after a fatwa was imposed on her for giving birth to an illegitimate child.

Four people were being interrogated to find the clue to the fatwa allegedly issued by a madrassa teacher in Sunamganj district's Chhatak area, police said today.

Mahmuda Begum, 17, was rescued and taken into custody to save for being beaten up, they said.

The local arbitrators, acting according to the fatwa, had on Friday forced Mahmuda's father Harab Ullah, a begger, to go to the local mosque with a garland of old shoes around his neck.

Media reports said according to the fatwa announced by Abdus Sobhan, Khatib of the Jawa Jame Mosque and an assistant teacher of a local madrassah, Mahmuda Begum was to be beaten in broad daylight with a bundle of bamboo canes.

Mahmuda gave birth to a male child, who died after two days. (PTI)

Chinese leaders 'agree in principle' to visit Japan next year

BEIJING, Dec 19: Sino-Japanese political exchanges, seriously disrupted since 2001 due to former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, is expected to resume with a visit by Chinese leaders to Japan in 2007, a senior official indicated here.

Chinese leaders have agreed "in principle" to visit Japan next year, said State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan here yesterday during a meeting with Koichi Kato, former Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and a member of the House of Representatives.

Though Tang did not identify the Chinese leaders who would visit Japan next year, it is believed that Chinese President Hu Jintao or Premier Wen Jiabao may undertake the trip.

He said the two sides should take the visit as an opportunity to promote friendly exchanges and reciprocity, cooperation in various fields and map out a long-term development plan for the bilateral relations.

The two countries should also further consolidate the "three foundations" for a long-term, sound and stable development of bilateral relations, namely the political foundation, economic foundation and people-to-people relationship, he said.

Koizumi's successor, Shinzo Abe paid an official visit to China in October after assuming the premiership, the first visit to China by a Japanese prime minister in the past five years.

During his visit, the two sides issued a joint press communique, in which the Japanese side invited Chinese leaders to visit Japan, and the Chinese side expressed gratitude and consent in principle for the invitation. (PTI)

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